Unscrolled : 54 Writers and Artists Wrestle With the Torah (9780761178743)
Page 11
BO (“Go”)
Exodus 10:1–13:16
Negotiations begin . . . and fail. God tells Moses to return to Pharaoh and threaten him with an attack of locusts that will devour whatever is still standing after the hailstorm. Pharaoh’s advisers beg their leader to let the Israelites go, but he dismisses the notion, debating the possibility of liberating only the menfolk.
Moses raises his arm on God’s command, and an easterly wind propels a swarm of locusts, so numerous they hide the land from view and make the sunlight disappear. When Pharaoh begs Moses to end the plague and asks for forgiveness, God dispatches a westerly wind, which drives the locusts into the sea. But the Lord has stiffened Pharaoh’s heart, and he will not let the Israelites go.
Moses raises his arm once more, and absolute darkness descends upon the land. In the three days it reigns, no Egyptian can move as only the Israelites enjoy light in their own homes.
At last, Pharaoh offers to let the Israelites go, but demands that they leave their livestock behind. Moses declines, knowing that without livestock, they cannot offer sacrifices to the Lord.
The bitter climax
The Lord fills Moses in on the plan to execute one final, deadly plague that will enable the Israelites to grab the gold and silver from their Egyptian neighbors and then flee. At midnight every one of the Egyptians’ firstborn sons will die, including even farm animals. The chaos of death will trigger a scream the likes of which will never be heard again.
Moses warns Pharaoh, but God hardens the Egyptian’s heart so he will not heed him. God also makes sure the Israelites mark their doorposts with lamb’s blood as a symbol of recognition, so God can “pass over” the Israelites when the land is swept of its firstborn. As the murders occur, the Israelites are to prepare to leave. From that night on, the day shall be commemorated as Passover, in which unleavened bread will be eaten for seven days to remember the Lord’s ability to liberate the Israelites from slavery. Moses briefs the Israelites’ elders, giving careful instructions about the blood on the doorpost.
In the middle of the night, the killing takes place. A scream arises, waking Pharaoh from his slumber, as there is not an Egyptian home in which death has not struck. Pharaoh summons Moses and tells him to take his people and their flocks and be gone. The Egyptian people urge the Israelites to leave before the entire nation is killed, allowing the Israelites to take their gold and silver from them as they do so. Six hundred thousand men (this being the Bible, women are not mentioned, only assumed), accompanied by children and herds, leave in such a hurry that their bread does not have time to rise.
On this night, 430 years of Israelite slavery comes to an end. God explains the laws of the Passover offering of lamb, which is not to be eaten by foreigners or the uncircumcised, to Moses and Aaron. As the Israelites troop out of Egypt, Moses addresses them, making it clear that the Lord has plans for them to go to the land promised in the covenant, which will flow with milk and honey. A number of rituals are instituted to help the Israelites remember the day the Lord freed them from Egypt with a mighty hand. The festival of Passover is inaugurated. The Israelites are also commanded to wear a sign on their hands and foreheads to help them remember the Lord’s power. And firstborn sons are to be “redeemed”—or celebrated—with a gift of silver to the priests.
Steve Bodow
[THINK COFFEE, BOWERY, NYC, EARLY 2012]
[Begin transcript section.]
RB: The Bodow. Loving that. Want more of that. Listen, little project. Will move mountains to have you take a bit.
SB: Sure, Roger. What is it?
RB: Aces. Thrilled. Beyond thrilled actually. The Bodes. So, against all wisdom and sense I’m organizing a group to rewrite the Bible. The five books. Definitely, definitely wanting you in it. Little riffs on whatever interests. Looking at it fresh, no off-limits. Having a dialogue with this very rich stuff. Some tasty parashat I’ve held back for the Bodow.
SB: Sure, Roger.
RB: Fantastic. Toppers. You gorgeous man. Here’s one: back half of the Ten Plagues.
SB: Okay, Roger.
[End transcript section.]
* * *
[v.o.] Previously on BOOK OF EXODUS: God () conspired with Moses (BEN AFFLECK) to get Pharaoh (F. MURRAY ABRAHAM) to free 600,000 Jewish slaves (ZOSIA MAMET, RAY ROMANO, ETC.) and let them go back to Israel. When Pharaoh refuses, God visits a series of increasingly severe punishments on Egypt, including turning the Nile to blood and propagating cow flu. Then God prepares to send the next plague.
* * *
[9:20 p.m. Sunday night, Apartment #41, NYC, late 2012]
SB
Kathy, you are my wife.
KP
That is correct.
SB
I just wanted to establish that. And you are both game for and tolerant of this conceit.
KP
Yes I am.
SB
Now we’re going to conduct a dialogue. You be the Bible and I’ll be me, reacting naturally, in real time.
KP
You are the best husband. Okay, here we go. Chapter ten. “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go to Pharaoh. For I have hardened his heart in order that I may display these My signs among them . . .’”
SB
Hang on. Sorry.
KP
Yes . . .
SB
Not to interrupt, but--“I’ve hardened his heart”?
KP
Yeah.
SB
Pharaoh’s heart wasn’t already hard?
KP
I guess that’s what it’s implying.
SB
He went out of His way to harden it? Because I always thought it was “Evil, intransigent Pharaoh just wouldn’t learn his lesson.” That he was so stubborn or dumb that to get the Jews out of Egypt, God had to keep raising the stakes. But now it’s “God MADE the Egyptians stubborn so He’d have an excuse to bring more hurt”? That’s mental. There had to be some other reason.
KP
“. . . And that you may recount in the hearing of your sons and of your sons’ sons how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I displayed My signs among them--”
SB
Oh boy . . .
KP
“--in order that you may know that I am the Lord.”
SB
Wow. So we could have been out of there sooner, with way fewer plagues--but us getting free was actually less important to Him than Him being seen as He wanted to be seen by the all-important Jewish demographic?
KP
I think God hadn’t been having such an easy time with the Jews.
SB
Let me guess: We were being argumentative.
KP
Or forgetful. I mean, understandably. Four centuries in bondage, even a faithful people might get skeptical. So He had a problem.
SB
And now helicopter-parent Yahweh has decided that to win back the kids, He has to make an amaaaazing impression.
KP
You have a crap attitude on this, don’t you?
SB
[Silence.]
KP
[Clears throat.] “So Moses and Aaron went to Phar--”
SB
I mean, I’m trying. Me doing this Bible chapter is--you know, I’m trying to engage, or maybe find a way through the skepticism.
KP
[Silence.]
SB
Sorry. You were saying.
KP
“. . . and said to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go that they may worship Me.”’”
SB
So Moses says that instead of doing unpaid construction work in South Cairo, the Jews want to worship the Lord. So far so good.
KP
“For if you
refuse to let My people go, tomorrow I will bring locusts on your territory. They shall cover the surface of the land, so that no one will be able to see the land . . . and they shall eat away all your trees that grow in the field.”
SB
A rough punishment, but not inappropriate. Pharaoh’s no saint. You don’t get to run a dynasty if you cave to every menacing portent.
KP
“Moreover, they shall fill your palaces and the houses of all your courtiers and of all the Egyptians--something that neither your fathers nor fathers’ fathers have seen from the day they appeared on earth to this day.”
SB
Gothic.
KP
“With that he turned and left Pharaoh’s presence.”
SB
Moses throws down mic, bounds offstage.
KP
“Locusts invaded all the land of Egypt . . . They hid all the land from view, and the land was darkened; and they ate up all the grasses of the field and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left, so that nothing green was left, in all the land of Egypt.”
SB
Very persuasive. I mean, that is a DAMN PLAGUE. No way Pharaoh wouldn’t relent at this point. Not even he would let his own people--many innocent people--suffer so deeply.
KP
“But the Lord stiffened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let the Israelites go.”
SB
And we’re back here again! Your honor, this clearly constitutes entrapment.
KP
Go on, counselor.
SB
Plaintiff, who is omnipotent, coaxed my client into a pantomime of disobedience simply so plaintiff could show off His almightiness and hurt-bringing abilities. Your honor, I submit that there is nothing more dangerous than an all-powerful being with an inferiority complex.
KP
“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Hold out your arm toward the sky that there may be darkness upon the land of Egypt . . .’ People could not see one another, and for three days no one could get up from where he was; but all the Israelites enjoyed light in their dwellings.”
SB
Completely terrifying. A miracle in every sense. No question, everyone gets it now, Egyptians and Jews alike, this Yahweh is the One.
KP
“But the Lord stiffened Pharaoh’s heart and he would not agree to let them go.”
SB
Grrrrrr . . .
KP
And then, a little later, “Moses and Aaron had performed all these marvels before Pharaoh, but the Lord had stiffened the heart of Pharaoh so that he would not let the Israelites go from his land.”
SB
Because He had His big finale.
KP
I’ll grant you, it’s a bit creepy how bent He was on getting to that tenth plague. By the way, I’m going to stop now.
SB
That’s fine. I’ll just lose the “actual dialogue” pretense.
Chapter eleven: MOSES SAID, “Thus says the Lord: Toward midnight I will go forth among the Egyptians, and every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne to the firstborn of the slave girl who is behind the millstones.”
Here’s the nub of it: Across all the seders and schooling, I must have heard or read versions of the “final plague” story--what, two hundred, three hundred times? And I still can’t believe THIS is the God who my people, whom I’m generally very proud of, have organized their culture around for the last fifty-eight-hundred years.
“. . . Moses then summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, ‘. . . And when your children ask you, “What do you mean by this rite?” you shall say, “It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, because He passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians.”’”
“. . . And you shall not say, ‘Though technically He didn’t have to do any of that smiting; it was actually this purely optional thing He did because He wanted to make sure we would have something to talk about.’”
“In the middle of the night the Lord struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on the throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon . . .”
Wow. Just wow.
“. . . and all the firstborn of the cattle.”
And I thought it was pigs He hated.
“And Pharaoh arose in the night, with all the Egyptians--because there was a loud cry in Egypt; for there was no house where there was not someone dead.”
What’s the opposite of DAYENU?
Look, , thanks for getting us out of Egypt. Sincerely. It was awful there. And I know the Bronze Age desert was a brutal place, and Your ghostwriters were writing for that scene. And I suppose if the programmatic killing of children had been the only way to get us slaves freed, You’d at least have an argument. But this was not that. This was premeditated heart-hardening so we could see You in terrible, terrible action. You didn’t care about the murder; You cared that we Jews saw the murder. So this looks less like “win back the loyalty of your chosen tribe” than “gratuitous child killing.”
KP
I’ve got to come back in here. You know, there are other ways to take this in. At least for non-adolescents.
SB
Ouch.
KP
Why not take--not just this story, but this entire conception of God--take it maybe as an allegory. The universe is capricious and sometimes cruel. It just is. And being aware that there are forces at play, or just chaos--the point being that we can’t control or appeal to or make sense of it, but since that’s reality, then living in regular acknowledgment of that could be a kind of spiritual practice.
SB
Well, aren’t you sophisticated?
KP
You’re just jealous.
SB
Actually, I am. Because for me, right now, it’s still: God of love, I’m good with. God of justice--I get it. But God of unnecessary baby-and-cow-killing plague number ten? Sorry. I’m never going to feel it.
“Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed; but whenever he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.” —Exodus 17:11
B’SHALLAH (“When he let go”)
Exodus 13:17–17:16
Once the israelites have been freed, God leads them on a roundabout journey through the wasteland of the Sea of Reeds, selecting an indirect route to prevent them from wishing for a return to slavery as soon as they are attacked.
The Israelites, who are both armed and bearing Joseph’s bones, know where to go because the Lord travels before them in the form of a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. God reveals to Moses that Pharaoh’s heart has been hardened once more, compelling him to send his armies in pursuit of the Israelites.
Back in Pharaoh’s court, the Egyptian king calls up six hundred of his finest charioteers to give chase. No sooner do the Israelites glimpse the approaching Egyptian column than they become gripped by fear, begging the Lord to tell them why they have been liberated from Egypt just to die in the wilderness. Moses preaches calm, promising that the Lord will protect them from the Egyptians, whom they will never see again.
Again, the Lord tells Moses the plan of action. He is to hold his rod over the sea so it will split, allowing the Israelites to march through on to dry ground. The Egyptians will pursue to their peril—God will see to that. Just then, the pillar of cloud shifts from the lead of the Israelites to the rear, acting as a buffer between them and their Egyptian pursuers, who cannot pass through.
Once Moses holds his arm out over the water, a strong east wind blows back the sea and turns it into dry ground. The Israelites march through with the water stacked up like a wall to their right and left. The Egyptians charge after them, but the Lord creates panic by locking the wheels of their chariots. On God’s
instruction, Moses holds his arm over the sea once more, closing the waters upon the Egyptians, who try to flee, but the Lord hurls them into the sea, drowning every last man.
The Israelites have made it on to dry land; witnessing the scene of destruction, they sense the power of God and Moses. They sing a song of triumph in tribute to God’s power.
In need of sustenance
The Israelites travel into the desert and are without water for three days. The people begin to grumble; Moses follows God’s lead and throws some wood into bitter water, instantly rendering it drinkable. God issues a nonnegotiable rule: The Israelites will be protected if they keep the commandments.
The Israelites are having a hard time adjusting to wilderness living and complain constantly, romanticizing the slave experience and wondering if Moses and Aaron will lead them only to their deaths. Meanwhile, God tells Moses that bread will rain down from the sky on a daily basis. Before Sabbath, a double portion will be provided. Moses shares this news with the Israelites and lets them know that their grumbling has not been well received by God.
At night, quail descend in great volume upon the camp. In the morning a flaky substance like dew covers the ground, and the Israelites discover it is bread dispatched by God. Moses instructs them to gather up only what they need, but many greedily stock up extra only to discover it rots quickly and becomes infested with maggots. Moses advises them to take a double portion on the sixth day ahead of the Sabbath. The extra portion they gather miraculously stays fresh.
However, on the Sabbath, some of the Israelites still set out from camp to gather a portion, and the Lord becomes irate, demanding to know from Moses how long it will take for the Israelites to follow instructions.